Orville Redenbacher Back From the Dead
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| From USA Today |
The news that Orville Redenbacher (the company) was digitally reviving Orville Redenbacher (the ex-human) escaped my notice, so seeing their flagship commercial during the Golden Globes was the first I knew about this. And even then, I wasn’t sure if they had just hired a look-alike, or gone all out and recreated him using dark sorcery.
This story in USA Today gives some good background information on the process and decision to do this. The accompanying video link is somewhat crappy, and unfortunately I don’t have the video to post yet. You can find the ad and some other original Redenbacher spots on the YouTube.
Unlike what companies like The Gap have done to disgrace dead celebrities, I don’t have a moral problem with what this new Redencacher ad does. Whether or not it gets good results, it’s not really grave-robbing to bring the man back to sell the product. After all, he did it while he was alive.
My only real question is, why not just find a look-alike? It seems like a (financially) painful process to go through to recreate a human being every time you need a new ad. In any event it looks rather nice, though from a content point of view it’s nothing mind-blowing.
Comment // January 19th, 2007 // 11:16 am
Let the man R.I.P. without an encarnate to sell popcorn. Where’s the respect and dignity? He died in 1995.
http://www.answers.com/topic/orville-redenbacher
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7410&pt=Orville%20%27the%20%22Popcorn%20King%22%27%20Redenbacher
Their advertising team should be canned!!!
Comment // January 19th, 2007 // 1:35 pm
Read the article, DC, it sounds like the driving force was his family to bring him back.
And again I point out, he did this during his life. It’d be like bringing back Dave Thomas to hawk Wendy’s, you know he wouldn’t object because he did it when he was living.
I saw the spot again on TV, and there is some weird, lifeless quality to the CG man. The work they did was pretty amazing though I don’t think anyone should be fired.
Comment // February 2nd, 2007 // 9:01 pm
I dunno… I guess I was used to the way he looked when he was older, toward the end of his life, because I didn’t find the CGI remotely persuasive, and I couldn’t understand why the didn’t just hire somebody.
Comment // May 26th, 2007 // 10:17 am
They really jumped the shark on this one.
It’s pathetic.
And it’s time to dump the slogan: “Youll like it better or my name isn’t Orville Redenbacher”
Well guess what, this guys name ISN’T “Orville Redenbacher” and no. I DON’T like it better.
Comment // May 26th, 2007 // 2:24 pm
What’s more. The real Orville character would roll over in his grave if he could see what a complete idiot this prosthetic dumbass replacement is. I agree, who ever agree’d to market this idea should be fired.